Fine work with Hillock. Where'd you learn to fight like that? No, forget I asked. We exiles have no history. Dominus took it from us when he had his Blackguards dump us in the water out there.
Here, got something for you. Should help you kill a few more of those undead bastards. No, don't bother thanking me. The way I figure it, the longer we fighters live, the longer everyone lives.
— Introduction |
Fine work with Hillock. Where'd you learn to fight like that? No, forget I asked. We exiles have no history. Dominus took it from us when he had his Blackguards dump us in the water out there.
— Introduction |
There's a fine line between man and monster. Brutus, the Warden of Axiom Prison... he crossed that line long ago. A big lad, and as you know from Hillock, big lads are slow. Hit and run, that's the way to cut them down to size. Unless there's thaumaturgy involved. Then forget the 'hitting' bit. Just run.
— Brutus |
The Warden's free of his own prison? Well, since you're so bloody determined to cheat the britches off death, you'd better have one of these... for luck.
And when they write the song about you, just be sure to mention that it was Tarkleigh who taught you everything you know.
— Brutus |
Founded by Marceus Lioneye as a supply station for his campaigns against the Karui. In its day, Lioneye's Watch could be defended by just a small garrison of well-armed legionnaires.
What have I got? A handful of starving criminals with driftwood clubs and rusted hatchets.
— Lioneye's Watch |
The Eternal Empire has some right nasty leftovers. Whether it's something in the air or in the water, no one stays dead in Wraeclast... not the first time. Can take a little while, but sooner or later corpses wake up and go looking for breakfast.
— Drowned Dead |
If you have to quench your curiosity about Merveil, go look at the corsairs that haunt the grave of ships. Like any mother, Merveil's got hungry mouths to feed.
— Merveil |
Rhoas? Overgrown chickens with a murderous streak. If you're not careful, they'll talon your guts out and snap them up like big, fat worms.
That said, be sure to rifle through their nests if you get the chance. Rhoas are like magpies, attracted to what shines.
— Rhoas |
Though they might look like you or I, behind those eyes there's nothing but darkness and hunger. Whatever's got inside those folks... is not even close to being human.
— Cannibals |
That hat Bestel wears? Saw him pluck it from the real captain's head, right before the cannibals barbequed the poor bastard. Waste not want not, I suppose.
Yes, Bestel's got a gift for telling tales but I'd never call him a liar. The truth's always in there. You just have to listen for it.
— Bestel |
Damn me! I didn't think it possible. All these souls Merveil and her brood have consumed over the years... you've done right by those that are dead, and by those who still might live.
— Merveil |
Nessa's the one keeps the rest of us from losing our minds. To be honest, when she first arrived, I didn't think she'd survive more than a day, two at most. She's been proving me wrong every dawn since.
Heard a bard once sing that "the fairest flowers bloom in the foulest places". He was bloody well right.
— Nessa |
The Submerged Passage doesn't look like it's always been underwater, and I'd wager it has something to do with those empty sockets in the cliff face. Whatever filled them... are long lost now. Though if they were shiny, who knows, maybe they're decorating some rhoa nests?
— Glyph Wall |
I've spent enough time smuggling from coast to coast to know that those shells don't come from these waters. They're Karui, and look about right to fit into that rock wall in the Mud Flats. I say complete the set, fit them into the sockets, and stand well back.
— Strange Glyphs |
Now that you've drained that passage, best I warn you about something.
I was running down a wounded rhoa, one night's eve, when I glimpsed something in that water-logged cavern. Looked a bit like a sand spitter, only the size of a bloody ox.
I reckon it's nesting down in those flooded depths somewhere. If you're going that way then do us a favour. Spill the old shield crab's guts before it gets hungry and comes looking for us.
— Dweller of the Deep |
You managed to kill a Grandaddy Crab? A pity you couldn't lug it up out of the caves for us. Could have made quite the chowder out of it. No matter. We've got one less reason to fear the dark and I've got one more thing to thank you for.
— Dweller of the Deep |
Got a job for you, if you're willing. There's a pool near the Mud Flats needs investigating. You'll smell it before you see it. Stinks like a carcass in high summer. But that's not the worst of it.
Dead birds walking. Animals don't rise up again the same as people do here. So if they aren't raising themselves, what's doing it for them? The answer's in that Fetid Pool.
Clear the place out and kill whatever's raising those rhoas. We've got enough living dead to contend with already.
— The Fetid Pool |
You've seen the Fetid Pool, have you? Or smelt it, rather. Stinks like a carcass in high summer. But that's not the worst of it.
Dead birds walking. Animals don't rise up again the same as people do here. So if they aren't raising themselves, what's doing it for them? The answer's in that Fetid Pool.
Clear the place out and kill whatever's raising those rhoas. We've got enough living dead to contend with already.
— The Fetid Pool |
A necromancer? Just the one, was it? Guess the bastard got a bit lonely, decided to make himself some pets.
Well, good to see you don't mind getting your hands good and filthy. Here... to mark a dirty job well done.
— The Necromancer |
Why would Piety go and cut us off from the interior? Thankfully, I don't have it in me to know what that witch thinks.
But I reckon you'll work it out, once you've lowered Shavronne's Barricade for us, of course.
— The Blocked Road |
I've travelled inland, on the Emperor's Road via the Prisoner's Gate. Had to skirt around Axiom Prison... that's the holdfast of Brutus, the Warden. Bloody treacherous trip, it was.
Worth it? There's forest inland. Game, berries, fruit... more food than we can scrounge here.
But most here wouldn't survive the journey. Would be a damn sight easier if we could pass through the Prison. Tell you what... you carve us a path up the coast, find us a way past or through Brutus, and you'll have more than a few lives owing to you.
— Reaching the Forest |
You found a way to bring down Shavronne's Barricade? It's at times like these I recall I'm a man of action, not words. Should we encounter each other in the forest, the roast boar's on me, my friend.
— Reopened Passage |
There's many a way to die in Wraeclast. Most of them are mercifully quick. But you get caught alive by the goatmen, you'll wish by any god you believe in that you hadn't.
I've heard some of the more superstitious exiles say there's a deity these goatmen worship. Abberath, Eater of Agony. Sounds like a right bastard, if you ask me. So if the goatmen hand you an invitation to go have dinner with the Cloven God, tell them where to stick it.
— Goatmen |
I've seen many an exile pass through Lioneye's Watch. And many more that simply pass on. Those letters are my way of keeping track... of remembering.
Oriath might want to forget us all, but I'll be damned if I will.
— Letters of Exile |
That medicine chest you found, it'll do more than you might think. The medicine will run out, it always does. But Nessa won't. Give that girl a sliver of hope and she'll carry it to the end of the world.
— Medicine Chest |
First we hear that Oriath has lost its bloody mind, and then you turn up. Doesn't take a scholar to work out how those two events might be connected.
I don't know what's going on out there, and I probably wouldn't understand it even if I saw it with my own two eyes. What I do know is this. The world we knew... it's gone. Now we have to do our damndest to make sure we don't go with it.
— Introduction |
Nessa... I saw her one night, running out across the Coast, headed in the direction of the Mud Flats. Called out to her... but she didn't even turn her head. Maybe she couldn't hear me, maybe she didn't want to, I don't bloody know. I tried to run after her but she'd vanished into the darkness before my feet had barely touched the sand.
So I tracked her, all the way to the Mud Flats, and that's when her tracks... they just stopped. No sign of meeting someone or something, no sign of a struggle. It's like one moment she was running and the next... gone.
Look, I've heard some things, about what you've done. Things that beggar belief. Now, you can do this. Please, find Nessa. Bring her back to us.
— Nessa |
You've seen Nessa? Talked to her? That's more than I had dared hope for, truth be told.
This... change... she's going through, this curse the so-called 'Brine King' has put on her... it can be broken. I know it!
You've got to keep going, follow her trail before it gets any colder. Make your way along the Coast, the Ship Graveyard, even Merveil's Cave if you must.
By my reckoning, this King's not the sort to venture far from his briny bed.
— Nessa |
I wonder how much Lilly squeezed out of those refugees from Oriath. Yes, she did risk her life and ship to save them, but I knew the Lilly of old. A damn fine smuggler, and that Lilly never did a good deed that didn't also turn a profit.
— Lilly |
Axiom Prison has been fairly quiet since you saw fit to retire its warden. Afraid that's no longer the case.
Shavronne of Umbra, the very witch that made Brutus the man he was. I don't know if she's a ghost, a ghoul or some other death-scorning creature I've never heard of, but she's up there, tinkering away with her black arts and twisting nature around her bony old fingers.
Honestly, I don't care why she's come back or what cruelty she's brewing up there. She's a boil that needs lancing before the infection spreads.
— Shavronne of Umbra |
Good work clearing another path through Axiom Prison. I'm starting to think those stories I've heard about you might be true.
— Shavronne of Umbra |
The Ship Graveyard's blocked off? Dammit... that means that Brine King bastard knows you're coming after Nessa.
In that case, you'll have to pass through Prisoner's Gate, follow the mountains, and make your way back to the sea by way of Merveil's Caverns.
From the sound of it, Nessa's in no condition to venture far from the coast, so she has to be around there somewhere.
— The Ship Graveyard |
If Nessa thinks you can use that old rag of a banner to rustle up a phantom ship, who am I to argue? I don't need to understand how she comes back to us, only that she can.
— The Black Flag |
The Submerged Passage... it's underwater again and there's no sign of those shells you used to drain it.
Fortunately, there's another way to reach Axiom Prison and beyond, a path I scouted out myself, through what was once the Fetid Pool and then along the Ridge above it.
Problem is, whatever's brought those Karui revenants to life has also sealed the pool entranceway with a bloody great totem.
— The Karui Fortress |
The Fetid Pool's lost its stink. Washed clean, like the Autumn rain that gives Theopolis its only decent bath for the year.
And turns out, when you scrub away the fetid filth, there's a Karui fortress underneath. Probably built by King Kaom himself. Now home to... I don't even know what. Needless to say, I didn't get too close, but looks like it's big, Karui, and right royally pissed off about something.
— The Karui Fortress |
You've killed the Karui war god? Can you kill a god?
Look, I can't even begin to understand what you've just done. Bestel will be able to put our gratitude into words more fitting of a legend. Me, I'll work with what I know. A solid reward for a damn fine deed.
— Tukohama |
I'd hoped for a chance to see Nessa again, dreamed it like some poor bloody child believing in fairytales.
No, she's not one of us anymore, but at least she's not like Merveil either. Can't overlook a mercy like that. Who knows, perhaps Nessa is better off this way. Not like this is much of a home to come back to, anyway.
Look, I know you did what you could, and for that, you'll always have my thanks.
— Nessa |
With the road to the Phrecian Forest clear again, I trekked through to the forests beyond, to see if the strangeness we're seeing on the coast is also happening inland. What I saw nearly froze my heart solid.
The animals there, poor wretches... overtaken by some sort of parasite. As close as I can reckon they're like termites, burrowing into flesh and mind instead of wood. If I'm right, there'll be a nest somewhere, and a queen. If you can find it, destroy it. Those parasites aren't something we want to see around here any time soon.
— The Puppet Mistress |
Another damned god, you say? Yeah, that figures. A primitive deity from a primitive time, crawling up out of the dirt with a view to enslaving us all with its creepy bloody offspring.
I think we could all do without gods like that. So here, take something for the road ahead. The way things are going, it'll be a tough one.
— The Puppet Mistress |
That Karui relic you're carrying... looks bloody familiar. Yeah, I've seen it's twin stuck in that totem guarding Tukohama's doorstep. If I were you... and in this case I'm glad I'm not... I'd see about putting that eye back where it belongs. It might do nothing at all, but it's at least worth a shot, I reckon.
— The Eye of Conquest |
Never took much stock in the stories Lilly told. Didn't sit right, those full moon sacrifices her and her ilk would do out on the open water. But now, in light of everything, I'm obliged to reconsider.
If it meant Nessa might be spared the attentions of that wretched Brine King, I'd even be inclined to slit a mutineering throat or two myself.
— The Brine King |
Those shambling 'nobles' out there on the strand? They left Oriath to die a bloody death. Rats fleeing a sinking ship. Seems they learned a bit of a hard truth though. Doesn't matter how much money you have, you can't outrun death when it comes for you.
Can't say they've actually noticed though. They're still the same flesh-eating bastards they've always been. Just a bit more obvious about it now.
— The Twilight Strand |
I had a life before Lioneye's Watch. Not much of one by some people's standards, but it was good enough for me.
Lilly and I, we'd smuggle a bit of booze to keep our purses full. We were good at it too. Made us a fine partnership, her quick mind and my steady nerves, right up until the day she left me drunk and trussed on Penance Quay. By the time the Blackguards unwrapped their present, she was halfway to Trarthus.
That's how I ended up here. Yes, it smarts a bit to look at her, but what right have I to say where the flotsam finally washes up?
— Life with Lilly |
Seems Tukohama's raised up a host out of whatever afterlife you Karui believe in. I feel for those poor bastards, if I'm to be honest. You Karui haven't had an easy history. Colonised, enslaved, used as pawns in many a war, and now abused in death by your own bloody god.
This is why I don't follow any deity. They're all as bad as each other.
— Karui Revenants |
Seems Tukohama's raised up a host out of whatever afterlife the Karui believe in. I feel for those poor bastards, if I'm to be honest. The Karui haven't had an easy history. Colonised, enslaved, used as pawns in many a war, and now abused in death by their own bloody god.
This is why I don't follow any deity. They're all as bad as each other.
— Karui Revenants |
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